Linguistics Department Honors
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Honors Requirements
Honors Selection process
At the end of the junior year, if a student has a grade point average (GPA) of 3.75 or better in linguistics courses and at least 3.50 overall, the student is eligible to enter the Honors Program. In consultation with the undergraduate advisor, the student may approach a tenure-line linguistics faculty member to request that the faculty member serve as the Thesis Advisor. Should a second Thesis Advisor be relevant to the research topic and willing to serve, the first Thesis Advisor and the student may agree to invite a second Thesis Advisor; this second advisor need not be a tenure-line faculty member, nor even a member of the Department of Linguistics. When the student and the Thesis Advisor(s) agree to work together, they fill out an Honors Program Form and turn it in to the Linguistics Office, where it will be placed in the student’s file. At this point, the student has entered the Honors Program.
Senior thesis
Students must write an original honors thesis under the guidance of a Thesis Advisor from the linguistics faculty, chosen in consultation with the undergraduate advisor. The thesis must be a substantial piece of work; it may be a revised and expanded version of a term paper. The Thesis Advisor determines whether the thesis is acceptable and may require the student to register for up to 6 credits in Honors Thesis (LING 403), taken pass/no pass (P/N).
Upon fulfilling these requirements, the candidate is approved to receive a B.A. degree with honors in Linguistics.
Department Senior Theses
2016
Shelby Arnson, Twentieth Century Sound Change in Washington DC African American English, advisor: Tyler Kendall.
Brittany Parham, Diagnosing Stress: The Acoustic Correlates of Stress in Warm Springs Iciskin, co-advisors: Spike Gildea, Melissa Baese-Berk, and Joana Jansen, NILI.
2017
Drew McLaughlin, Individual Variation in the Perception of Variable and Degraded Speech, advisor: Melissa Baese-Berk.
Anna Robinson, Linguistic and Musical Integration: Effect of Melodic Accent on Rhythm Perception, advisor: Melissa Baese-Berk.
2019
Cyndie Davenport, Dialect Variation in English, and Investigation into the Disappearing Word Effect, advisor: Melissa Baese-Berk.
Jordan A. G. Douglas, Creating Cariban Postpositions: A Sometimes Bipartite Lexical Class, advsior: Spike Gildea.
Zachary Houghton, A Cross-linguistic Study of Word Order in Binomial Expressions in English, Korean, and Japanese, advisor: Volya Kapatsinski.
2020
Chasen Afghani, The Role of Financial Rewards in Non-Native Speech Adaptation, advisor: Melissa Baese-Berk.
Carissa Diantoro, Investigating the effect of 2nd language learning on the acquisition of a 3rd language rhythm pattern, advisor: Lisa Redford.
Kayla Walker, The Role of Semantic Predictability in Adaptation to Nonnative-Accented Speech, advisor: Melissa Baese-Berk.
2021
Isabel Crabtree, Nationalism and “foreign” speech: The role of listener ideology in perception of non-native speech volume, advisor: Melissa Baese-Berk.
Sabrina Piccolo, Effect of Accent Perception on the Perception of Professionalism, advisor: Melissa Baese-Berk.
Kira Seretan, Split diminutives: A study of truncation patterns in American English speakers with varying linguistic backgrounds, advisor: Volya Kapatsinski.
Honors College Theses
2018
Hayden Igartua, Linguistic Feature Spread in Online Social Networks, co-advisors: Spike Gildea and Charlotte Vaughn.
2019
Jordan A. G. Douglas, A Formal and Semantic Reconstruction of Cariban Postpositions, co-advisors: Spike Gildea and Don Daniels.
2020
Kayla Walker, The Role of Semantic Predictability in Adaptation to Nonnative-Accented Speech, advisor: Melissa Baese-Berk**Kayla was awarded the Applied Research Award by Clark Honors College.**
2021
Isabel Crabtree, Nationalism and “foreign” speech: The role of listener ideology in perception of non-native speech volume, advisor: Melissa Baese-Berk**Isabel was awarded the Barbara Corrado Pope Award by Clark Honors College.**
Second Language Acquisition and Teaching Certificate (SLAT)
Interested in languages? Thought about becoming a language teacher? There are over 6,500 languages spoken in the world today, and most people live and work with speakers of more than one language. There is tremendous pressure/desire to learn national and international languages, both in the US and around the world. To have the SLAT certificate added to your Degree Guide, please contact the SLAT advisor. When your SLAT requirements are complete, you will apply for the SLAT at the same time you apply to graduate.
The Certificate in Second Language Acquisition and Teaching is available to both undergraduate and graduate students. It is a great way to begin your training in the following areas:
- Second language acquisition and teaching
- U.S. elementary, middle and secondary jobs
- Immersion schools
- Teaching more than one language
- Teaching English as a Second/Foreign Language
- Translation
- International business
- Area studies and linguistics
- Language planning and policy
- Multi-cultural and multi-lingual awareness
- Immigration issues
- Language diversity
- U.S. residency and citizenship requirements